Behind Stone Walls
by JennyTylerSmith
Summary: Still suffering the loss of losing Jenny, the Doctor is in a dark place when the TARDIS takes him and Donna back to a place where he had visited before. But the Doctor's world is turned upside down when he runs into someone he hadn't expected.


Prologue

Although Doctor had told Donna that he was fine after the day's event, inside he really wasn't fine. Jenny's loss had affected him more than he wanted to show so he kept a false façade to show that he was coping.

Inside his mind anger raged at how unfair the universe was. It wasn't fair that everything he got attached to was snatched away from him so cruelly. It's almost as if the universe is stalking him, waiting for the exact moment he is completely attached and then ripping it from him just in that instance. He became attached to Rose, almost dependent on her and just then, just as he was comfortable and close, universe stroke and took her. Just as he accepted Jenny as his own she was taken away from him, dying only few hours old, she didn't even get the chance to live. The empty hole inside his hearts seemed to get bigger and bigger with each lose and his own mind seemed to get darker.

But he did not show this conflict to Donna. Wanting to drown out the thoughts and his darkness, he ran towards the console screen and used the randomizer to select random co-ordinates. He needed a distraction, distraction has been helping him for the last decades; it should definitely work now.

"Doctor," Donna called his name out but the Doctor was busy staring at the screen.

"Doctor! What are you doing?" asked Donna warily. She knew he wasn't taking Jenny's death well, her death had almost caused him to actually use a gun and the one thing she had learned was the Doctor hated guns. But he was pretending to be fine in front of her and she didn't think that was healthy.

"Ah! You must be wondering where we are going. Go on, ask were we are going I know you are dying too!" he said it, looking at her with wide hollow grin.

"Fine, where are we going?" Donna asked while looking at him with concern.

"Well for once even I don't even know where we are going, I am going to let the TARDIS choose this time and this will be a complete surprise! Adventurous and exciting isn't it!" the Doctor rambled, having the manic grin in place as he looked at her.

Donna opened her mouth to disagree but then saw his eyes, he seemed to be begging for her to forget about it, as if knowing what she wanted to suggest. Despite her feelings she kept quiet and dropped the subject.

"When do you ever know, you try to take us somewhere and we never land where you intent to anyway so majority of the times you never do know where we are space man." She skirted away from the subject, by the gratification in his eyes he understood that she had dropped the subject.

While she thought it was unhealthy, the Doctor was too set in his way to talk about his feelings so she didn't see a point.

"I resent that," he said it; he opened his mouth to defend himself when the TARDIS suddenly stopped. They hadn't moved from their positions and neither were they sprawled on the floor which seemed to be the norm whenever the TARDIS landed.

"Are we here?" asked Donna quietly "Didn't feel like it, I didn't even have to hold onto something with my dear life!"

"That has to be one of the gentlest landing in a while actually. You really wanted to come here I take it?" he asked out loud, at which the lights in the desktop lit up.

"Hold on did she just reply?" asked Donna as she stared at the place where the lights lit up. Although Doctor always kept saying that the TARDIS was, she didn't really know just how alive the TARDIS was.

"Yep! Come along Donna, I am excited to see where old girl brought us!" Doctor shouted, excite exuding off him as he ran towards the door, Donna sighed and followed him. He was doing a pretty good job of keeping the cheery façade, very believable. It just made her wonder how many times he had faked being happy and hide under this mask.

When she stepped out of the TARDIS, she stood still and took in her surroundings. She was surprised to notice that they appeared to be inside a building, definitely a room of sorts. It looked compact and was sparsely furnished, with bits and bobs of strange items littered about. The sight confused her and looked at Doctor for answers but his expression just puzzled her even more. He was tense but did not appear to be as confused like her.

"Where are we?"

"22nd Century London, in a secret facility the public are completely unaware of it even though it's smacked down right in the middle of the city centre." As he spoke he started to walk curtly. He stopped in front of the door and tried to open it but found it locked. He took his sonic screwdriver out methodically when Donna broke the silence.

"Secret facility? What? Scientists doing horrible tests powered by govenment and against wills?" joked Donna.

"Got it in one," Doctor said it in a sombre tone, the sonic screwdriver whirred and the door popped open.

The smile in Donna's face vanished immediately as his words sank in.

"What? This really happens in here? They use humans as guinea pigs! This sounds like something out of a farfetched sci-fi film in the future!"

"Not particularly human," he said it as he stopped and turned towards Donna, she quirked her eyebrows. The Doctor placed the screwdriver back in his pocked and turned towards her fully to give the exposition.

"By this time the cloning method has become highly advanced. In fact it was discovered during the end of 21st century but by now it has become more…sophisticated if you will. It's a substance called flesh, a living substance, once in contact with a human or any other alien creature; it duplicates that DNA and becomes a perfect clone, doppelganger if you will."

"So you are telling me the people who own this bloody building make flesh clones of humans or anyone else and then use them as guinea pigs happily because they are just clones, and you know of it and let them do _this! _That's not right! They may be clones but they would still have feelings and these people torture them for science's sake!" Donna got more and more agitated at the thought and then looked at the Doctor with anger and disgust in her eyes.

"I know, I know it's wrong, did you honestly think that I would call something like that right Donna?" The Doctor looked at Donna, slightly hurt that she could think like that, Donna stopped mid-rant and looked at him.

"You agree with me?"

"Yes I do, in fact last time I came here, I found out about it and we both rescued all the flesh, and brought them on the TARDIS. You see the TARDIS engines stabilise the flesh so they became fully human once onboard and I dropped them off in a different timeline so they can live a normal human life. In fact last time I was here I torched this place down; they must have rebuilt this again. From my senses I can feel that this is set exactly one year after I came here, even thought it has been two years since I came here …" he trailed as he slowly opened the door and leaned his head out.

"We? Who was with you? Martha?" asked Donna curiously

"No it was-" he cut off midway and froze. He shut his mouth and stayed quiet. This reaction spoke loud. Donna could hazard a guess that it must have been Rose who he had been here with last. The Doctor never spoke about her but he would always clam up whenever she was concerned or she was mentioned.

Donna wasn't far off; last time he had been here was with Rose. He had been aiming to take her to 31st Century Ball, because she wanted to dress up and she had been dressed to T for that but they landed in this time, smacked bang in the heart of 22nd century London. They had still tried to find a good party or a restaurant where Rose can carry her look but then they ran into Alia, one of the flesh who had escaped. Once she had told them bits and bobs they had rescued all that were in the building before blowing it up. The memory of her draped in that dress, which she had found in the depth of the wardrobe, still caused his breath to hitch. Rose was beautiful anyway but the dress enhanced her even more, which he hadn't even thought was actually possible. The memory simply inflicted pain and he shook his head.

"Coast seems to be clear…" he trailed and was about to walk out but them stopped and Donna smacked into him.

"Oi! Why'd you stop-"

"Shh" whispered Doctor as he pointed at the sight in front of him. Donna saw what he was pointing at and she saw three guards walking in the hallway just outside their room. If they had looked left they would have seen them but they were looking ahead so they missed them.

"Look I am all for saving people but won't the scientists who kept them here find us and then trap us?" Donna looked at him questioningly.

"Hopefully not, it is nightshift and usually there aren't many people around just guards. And guards should be easy to avoid if we try enough," he stopped and then added again "Even if we get caught it shouldn't be that hard to out run them."

This time he opened the door and stepped out stealthily. He turned to his side expecting to see Donna following him but she wasn't beside him. Confused and a bit irritated he ran back inside the compact room to see what was holding up Donna. He walked closer and saw her leaned over, staring at something.

"Donna, we can't just idly stand around, they might come here what are you doin-" but he stopped midway when he noticed what was in her hands. In her hand she held a light pink chiffon medium length dress, with cap sleeves. She was clutching it and staring at it curiously.

"Donna" he spoke tersely "Tell me now, where did you get _that?_" His eyes trained completely on the dress.

Donna seemed to sense his anger because she looked up and looked at him perplexed.

"I…just found it here," she pointed at the black bin bag limp on the floor, "Why are you so antsy? It's just a dress. Mind you what it is actually doing here is the question, who leaves such a pretty dress like this just lying around…" she trailed incredulously.

She practically jumped when she heard a growl and turned to see it was the Doctor who was growling. Her eyes went wide and her jaw fell at that, she had seen the Doctor mad, during the Racnoss incident but ever since they met up again he hadn't had his dark episode. But what she saw in his face now was utter rage and she was genuinely frightened.

"Doctor…?" he stormed up to her, snatched the dress from her hand and shot out of the room like a lightning bolt.

The Doctor clutched the dress tightly as he ran the sonic screwdriver on it. It wasn't just any dress, it was the dress Rose had worn when they last visited here, completely identical and he never had co-incidents so he checked, wanting to be proven wrong. But when the DNA flashed, his rage burgeoned. How had Rose's dress gotten here? She still was wearing it when they left so why was one, which had her DNA and exact replica were here? The implications were not good, he used his sonic screwdriver to try and track down Rose's DNA. His breath hitched when it indicated that Rose's DNA was in close proximity. It said she was in this building. His breath hitched now at how impossible this was.

Rose wasn't here, she wasn't even in this world, she was in another universe trapped with no way back here, and he knew that he looked; he looked for every possible way he could get her back. So his screwdriver must be faulty as it indicated that Rose was here. Unless…

Eyes wide in the epiphany he used his screwdriver as a tracking device and followed where it lead him. He finally stopped outside a white door and tested the knob. To his surprise it was unlocked and easily opened. His hearts almost stopped at that sight. It was a fully white room, eerily similar to the lever room in Torchwood, but it was sparsely furnished, it looked like a hospital room, and in the middle of the room was a narrow hospital bed. Lying on top of the bed, with her hands and legs bound to it, was none other than Rose. Her hair was two inch longer, she was pale and wore a hospital gown but he would recognise her anywhere, no matter what state she was in. With a speed even he wasn't aware that he possessed, he ran to her side and tentatively caressed her cheek. He couldn't believe his eyes that he was actually seeing her, feeling her. When his eyes fell on her bound hand his eyes darkened, he could see even from where he was, that her wrists were red from all the rope burns. It indicated they kept her in this position for a while. With calmness he never knew he actually had, he raised the sonic screwdriver and used it to untie the ropes which had held her. Once they fell off, he methodically picked her up bridal style and carried her. But as soon as he picked her up, sirens started to blare loudly.

Without wasting any more time he started to run, as soon as he ran out of the room he ran into Donna.

"What did you do! That thing is going to alert everyone! Wait who's that? What's going-"

"No time Donna, we have to run," he barked. He would have offered her a hand but his hands were occupied by his precious bundle so he ran and Donna followed his suit.


End file.
